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‘Tempered optimism’ for the oil and gas industry

Oil and gas companies are running 1,757 rigs to drill new wells in the U.S. | Reuters

But oil production from federal land did rise from 2007 through 2010 before falling off, and onshore production from federal properties rose by a modest 44,000 barrels a day over the full period, indicating the drop could be attributed to the 2010 pause in new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after BP’s Macondo disaster.

Obama critics note that the 20 percent jump in U.S. gas output since 2007 comes largely from a 40 percent jump on private land, since production on federal properties fell by 33 percent during that period.

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And industry proponents are quick to blame the Obama administration for a slower permitting process. According to CRS, as of 2011 it took an average of 89 more days during the Obama administration than the Bush administration to process and receive approval for drilling applications.

But the Interior Department actually processes the applications more quickly now than the Bush administration did by an average of 56 days. The holdup comes from the amount of time it takes the industry to submit and complete an application — which is 145 days longer under Obama. That’s likely a result of sweeping new regulations put in place in the aftermath of the 2010 oil spill.

And executives are vocal in their fears that regulations under consideration in Washington on fracking and greenhouse gas emissions could bring an end to their boom.

Environmental activists and liberal groups chafe at those kind of comments. They say environmental concerns get lost in conferences like CERAWeek, which had several panels that touched on climate change and pollution, though those issues were not a central focus.

“For all of the attention that CERA gets, it really is no different than a bunch of oil and gas executives getting together on the Gulf Coast,” said Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program. “It’s a bubble mentality and that’s where trouble occurs.”

And climate change, he said, was the “elephant in the room.”

“How do you match the fossil fuel boom with the scientific clarity that fossil fuels are a contributing factor to climate change?” he asked.